Yesterday I turned on the TV and saw that some channel was running a Wacky Races marathon so I watched for a few minutes. During those few minutes, Penelope Pitstop (the only female racer and clearly a hot babe) was having car trouble. Up raced the ultimate male figure in the race, Peter Perfect, in his car, the Turbo Terrific, to lend assistance.
34 years later, not being 8 years old any more, the symbolism of his car suddenly made sense. In fact, it slapped me upside the head and proceeded to smack me around the room. I may have actually blacked out.
I'm happy I was able to see something as an adult that I loved as a kid. And I'm proud that I understood it this time. But I can't decide whether I should be amused or horrified at my discovery.
10 comments:
I also used to watch this when I was a kid. I didn’t see it when it originally aired, but probably sometime between 1973 and 1975. I didn’t catch the symbolism of Peter Perfect’s car, either.
The spin-off, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, was another of my favorites.
It originally aired in '69 and '70 so I likely saw it during the same period you did.
I couldn't remember and have always wondered whether or not they varied the winners of each race. I was interested to see from Wikipedia that they did. The only team that never placed was Dick Dastardly and Muttley.
I used to watch it, as well. Muttley was one of my favorite characters when I was a kid, and I would imitate his laugh.
I'm too old to have seen it, but maybe you are reading too much symbolism into it. Maybe it was just a wacky-drawn car. It's only obvious because we have been conditioned as we get older to look for sexual connotations in everything.
Marc, actually, sometimes a phallic symbol is just a phallic symbol.
Oh, and the driver's name was Peter. Duh.
You were just hoping Penelope Pitstop would get in bondage again. Perv.
The male bad guy was DICK Dastardly (anther phalic car with spikes), the only female Penelope PITstop (why did her car have a set of over-full lips on the front?) The not so subtle entendre in this three characters names and vehicles has been obvious to me for years. I'm sure the other characters had some too, but these three come out and slap you in the face.
I just looked it up, Penelope's car was called "The Compact PUSSYcat" (anyone for some tight pussy?)
Yes, that's pretty clear.
It's amazing what they got away with back in the day.
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